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The Criminal Justice System, 2nd Edition

Case law

Definition: Body of past legal decisions that serve as binding authority for judges to issue rulings in cases

Criminal justice issue: Courts; judges; trial procedures

Significance: The use of case law requires judges, in most cases, to craft legal opinions consistent with history and tradition, thus promoting stability and efficiency in the court system.

The U.S. legal system is actually two largely separate systems. One is the federal system, which is composed of district courts at the trial level, circuit courts for appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court as the highest authority. The second comprises state systems. Each state has different names for the courts within its system, but, at a minimum, every state has trial courts, appellate courts, and a high, or supreme, court.

The primary way in which judges make decisions in all U.S. courts is through the use of case law. Derived from the English common law, case law is a body of prior legal decisions that form the rule of law to be applied to cases before the courts. This concept of using prior decisions to regulate future decisions is more commonly referred to as the doctrine of stare decisis, a Latin phrase meaning “to stand by precedent.”

A primary purpose of case law is to ensure that judges do not issue rulings based on their own personal opinions. This approach to judicial decision making creates consistency in the legal system and promotes fairness by making sure that people in the same jurisdiction are not treated differently, especially when their cases may be factually similar.

An important limitation to the use of case law is that prior decisions are binding upon courts only when they have been issued by higher courts within the same system. Therefore, a state court decision would not be binding on a federal court. Likewise, a decision made at the trial level in either system would not be binding on an appellate or supreme court within the same system. Decisions that are not binding on courts are known as “persuasive authority.” When no binding authority exists on a particular legal question, parties may try using persuasive authority to persuade judges to decide cases in their favor.

Occasionally, past decisions are inconsistent with present societal norms. When this occurs, judges may issue rulings contrary to case law, thus establishing new binding authorities for future courts. A noteworthy historical example of this occurred when slavery was legal in the United States. Early judicial decisions found slavery to be constitutional. Once attitudes changed, the Supreme Court declared slavery unconstitutional, thus overruling its own well-established precedent. Consequently, it can be said that the use of case law in the judicial decision-making process is not absolute.

Kimberly J. Belvedere

Further Reading

1 

Johns, Margaret, and Rex R. Perschbacher. The United States Legal System: An Introduction. Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press, 2002.

2 

Rehnquist, William H. The Supreme Court. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.

See also Common law; Discretion; Due process of law; Harmless error; Judges; Judicial review; Opinions; Precedent; Stare decisis; Trials.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
"Case Law." The Criminal Justice System, 2nd Edition, edited by Hooper Michael K., Salem Press, 2017. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=CJ2E_0353.
APA 7th
Case law. The Criminal Justice System, 2nd Edition, In H. Michael K. (Ed.), Salem Press, 2017. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=CJ2E_0353.
CMOS 17th
"Case Law." The Criminal Justice System, 2nd Edition, Edited by Hooper Michael K.. Salem Press, 2017. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=CJ2E_0353.